Arch supporter



. 4 Q -A. MAYER ARCH SUPPORTER Fi led March 2:5. 192:;

w" 1 I ll Patented Sept. 9, 1924.

ABRAHAM MAYER, or MmwAu-xnn, Wisconsin.-

ARCH surronrnn.

Application filed March 23,

To dll whom it concern:

Be it known that .I, ABRAHAM Mam, a citizen of the United States, and resldent of Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Arch Sup orters; and I do hereby declare that the following is a 'full, clear, and exact description thereof.

This invention relates to an arch support and to the process of making such support. A

Arch supports, as heretofore made, have not proven wholly satisfactory, as they were frequently the cause of added discomfort to the user and only partially relieved'the discomfort sought to be cured. Several causes produced these undesirable results. Frequently the arch supports were heavy and cumbersome and required an unnecessary exertion on the part of 'theuser. The were never of sufficient resiliency and flexibility to conform to the individual or separate portions of the foot, and consequently, although resilient as a whole, such for instance as a spring, did not provide the necessary resiliency at the individual portions of the structure and consequently produced excessive pressure at separate portions of the foot. This obviously, eatly lessened their efficacy and detracted rom the benefit sought. On the other hand, if they were made of a soft pad or cushion, this .pad .soon lost its shape and became lifeless and inert and was thus gradually deformed and flattened into a shape unsuited for the purposes intended.

It is to overcome these defects that this invention is designed, and objects ofthis invention are to provide an arch support which is not only resilient as a unit, but

which is resilieii't" and soft at its individual or separate parts, and which will not, therefore, produce excessive pressure at any one 1 point, which will not crack, which is of light weight, which will not absorb moisture, and which is exactly contoured to the foot.

Further objects are to provide a process which may be easily carried out, which attains the exact shape o-f'the article designed, which produces with certainty the same product at each operation, which is rapid and inexpensive and which may be performed by an unskilled workman.

An embodiment of the invention 1s shown 1923. Serial no. 627,031.

in the accompanyingdrawing ofwhich Figure 1 is a bottom view of the arch-sup port, a portion being broken away.

Figur 2 is a plan view ofthe arch support, a portion being broken away. Figure 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a sectional view on the line -44 of Figure 2.

In practising the process contemplated by this invention, vegetable tissue, such for instance as cork, is divided, as for example, by

means of grinding or granulating until the material is separated into relatively small portions. For the purpose of this description this material will hereafter be referred to as ground cork. -This ground cork is then mixed with an elastic cement, or analogous substance, such as rubber cement, and

'a thoro gh mixing is assured. The mass is then laced in a mould roughly approximating the contour desired and allowed to set until it has sufficient consistency to retain a definite shape when subjected to the pressing operation. It has been found that this stage has been reached when the mass has almost completely set. Thereafter when the mass has almost completely set,.it is moulded under pressure to the exact contourdesired and allowed to take its permanent set while it is in this shape.

The arch support, therefore, is exactly contoured to the desired shape throughout its entire extent without, however, requiring the services of skilled'workmen to secure this, highly desirable result. It is to carried out in an inexpensiveand effective manner.

.be noted that this process may be rapidly comprises a body portion having a bottom 1 shaped to fit the inner surface of the bottom of the shoe. It is thickened adjacent its central portion as indicated in the drawings to provide an upwardly bulged portion which longitudinally has throughout its entire. portion a convex survace 2 which merges into. th thin front portion by means of a reverse curve 3 and which similarly merges into the heel portion by a reverse curve 4. This heel portion is concaved so that its upper surface is slightly dished as indicated at 5 to accommodate the roughly spherical heel of the users foot. The forward end 6 of the arch support may dwindle V to a feather edge while the rear end 7 is the curvature of the shoe at this point and slopes inwardly towards the bottom 1 as may be seen from Figures 1. and 4:. It is to be noted particularly that the upper surface adjacent the arch follows approximately the contour of a cissordal curve and provides a gradually increasing curvature along this concaved surface as the inner side is approached.

The body portion 12 is composed of divided vegetable fiber such as ground cork bound together by an elastic cement such as 7 rubber cement, as previously described. It

is incasedina sheath 13 of any desirable material preferably of a soft high grade of leather which completely encases the body portion.

It will thus be seen that an arch-support has been provided which is resilient in its individual portions, that is to say, which will yieldingly conform to the exact contour to the particular foot with which it is used, at all points throughout its extent without producing any unusual pressure at any portion'of the feet It will be seen further that the'device is flexible and resilient as a whole as well as inits individual portions and that it will permanently retain this resiliency and rename will not become distorted under continued use.

It will further be seen that the arch support It is further to be noted that the process if may be repeatedly and expeditiously carried out in a slmple manner by unskilled wbrkmen and that the resulting product will be exactly the same for each operation for each set of dies or other shaping instrumentalities employed, and, therefore, the skill of the individual workman is not required in order to produce a roduct of perfect quality. Although the invention has been described with considerable detail, it is to be understood that it may be embodied in different forms and that the process may be slightly altered without departing from the spirit of the invention. lit is, therefore, to be understood that the invention is to be limited only as set forth in the appended claim.

ltclaimk- The method of making. waterproof, resilient arch supports comprising thoroughly mixing ground cork with rubber cement into a free plastic mass, roughly moulding this freely plastic mass to the approximate con= tour of an arch support, allowing the roughly moulded mass to nearly set, moulding the nearly set mass under pressure to the exact contour of the arch support, and

allowing complete setting to occur whilethe material is in theexact contour In testimony that I claim the foregoing ll have hereunto set my hand at Milwaukee, in

the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin.

ABRAHAM arne. 

